Position information providing device, position information providing method, position information providing system, and program

ABSTRACT

A position information providing device includes a display control portion which controls, based on sound position information showing sound data transmission positions, the display of a map display screen where icons showing the sound data transmission positions are superimposed on a map.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to a position information providingdevice, a position information providing method, a position informationproviding system, and a program. Particularly, the present disclosurerelates to a position information providing device, a positioninformation providing method, a position information providing system,and a program, which provide the position information of sound.

Currently, a car navigation device is widely used which gives directionsto a destination based on position information obtained using a GPS(Global Positioning System) or the like. In addition, recently, many ofportable electronic devices such as a cellular phone, a portable gamemachine, a laptop, a camera, and the like have been equipped with afunction of obtaining the position information. Accordingly, theposition information is being used in various manners. In general, theposition information refers to the position information of a deviceitself which has a function of obtaining the position information, andis provided by being superimposed on a map.

The streets overflow with a various types of sounds. When differenttypes of sounds are heard at the same time, a situation could arisewhich makes it difficult to determine whether or not the sound has aninfluence on the hearer. Japanese Unexamined Patent ApplicationPublication No. 2010-152107 discloses a target sound extraction deviceextracting a specific type of sounds from obtained sound data. Moreover,Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-174538discloses a sound source position specifying device specifying a soundtransmission position. Using these technologies would make it possibleto specify the sound source position by extracting specific sounds froma flood of sounds on the streets.

SUMMARY

However, the sound source position specifying device disclosed inJapanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-174538obtains information on the direction and the distance of a sound sourcefrom the device, but is not able to show information on the soundtransmission position on a map. As an example of showing the informationon the sound transmission position on a map, the position of anemergency vehicle or the position of a railroad crossing is superimposedon a map as the sound transmission position. In this manner, bydisplaying the sound transmission position on the map, accidents arelikely to be reduced. Alternatively, by displaying the soundtransmission position on a map, the hearing-challenged can find theposition of sound using sight. In this way, there are potential demandsregarding the position information of sound.

It is desirable to provide a position information providing device, aposition information providing method, a position information providingsystem, and a program, which are new and improved ones being able todisplay a sound transmission position on a map to provide theinformation.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provideda position information providing device including a display controlportion which controls, based on sound position information showingsound data transmission positions, the display of a map display screenwhere icons showing the sound data transmission positions aresuperimposed on a map.

With this configuration, the position information of sound can bedisplayed on a map. The information on the sound data transmissionposition may be determined in the corresponding device based on theobtained sound data or may be determined by an exterior device. A usercan visually ascertain the position of sound by looking at the mapdisplay screen.

The device may further include a map matching portion which specifiesthe sound data transmission position on the map based on the soundposition information, wherein the display control portion may displaythe icons in the positions specified by the map matching portion.

The device may further include a sound type information obtaining unitobtaining individual sound type information showing the type of thesound data, wherein the display control portion may display the iconcorresponding to the sound type information on the map display screen.

The map matching portion may specify the position of the sound data bymatching the position with a target object selected based on the type ofthe sound data.

The map matching portion may match the position of sound data taking avehicle as a sound source with a road, and may omit the matchingprocessing of the sound data taking a vehicle as a sound source around apredetermined facility.

The display control portion may display an arrow showing the movementdirection of the sound data transmission position on the map displayscreen, based on the history of the sound data transmission position.

The display control portion may display the position of an immovableobject for which the sound data transmission position does not move onthe map display screen, using animated icons.

When there is a plurality of the sound data items, the display controlportion may display sound data transmitted from a moving object andsound data transmitted from a position close to the device on the mapdisplay screen by priority.

The device may further include an operation mode determination portiondetermining an operation mode according to a way of transportation ofthe user of the corresponding position information providing device; anda sound data obtaining portion obtaining sound data within an obtainmentrange according to the operation mode.

When there is an immovable object generating sound around the positioninformation providing device, the sound data obtaining portion mayobtain the sound data by orienting the directivity thereof to thedirection of the immovable object.

According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, there isprovided a position information providing method including obtainingsound position information showing a sound data transmission position;and displaying a map display screen where icons showing the sound datatransmission positions are superimposed on a map.

According to still another embodiment of the present disclosure, thereis provided a program causing a computer to function as a positioninformation providing device including a sound position informationobtaining portion obtaining sound position information showing a sounddata transmission position, and a display control portion controllingthe display of a map display screen where icons showing the sound datatransmission positions are superimposed on a map.

According to still another embodiment of the present disclosure, thereis provided a position information providing system including ananalysis server having a sound position determination portiondetermining a sound data transmission position and a communicationportion transmitting sound position information showing the transmissionposition; and a position information providing device having a soundposition information obtaining portion obtaining the sound positioninformation and a display control portion controlling the display of amap display screen in which icons showing the sound data transmissionpositions are superimposed on a map.

According to the embodiments of the present disclosure described above,the information on the sound transmission position can be provided bybeing displayed on a map.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a view illustrating an example of the exterior of a PND.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the functional configuration of aPND according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the detailedconfiguration of a position information obtaining portion of the PND.

FIG. 4 is a view illustrating a coordinate system around the PND.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of operation relating tosound position provision of the PND.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a map matchingprocessing.

FIG. 7 is a view illustrating an example of a map display screen.

FIG. 8 is a view illustrating another example of the map display screen.

FIG. 9 is a configuration view of a position information providingsystem according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating the functional configuration ofthe PND according to the embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating the functional configuration ofan analysis server.

FIG. 12 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of the operationrelating to sound position provision.

FIG. 13 is a view illustrating an example of the exterior of a cellularphone according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the functionalconfiguration of the cellular phone according to the embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, preferable embodiments of the present disclosure will bedescribed in detail with reference to the attached drawings. In thepresent specification and drawings, constituents having substantiallythe same functional configuration will be marked with the same referencenumerals to omit repetitive descriptions.

The description will be made in the following order.

1. First embodiment (example of executing analysis in a terminal device)

2. Second embodiment (example of executing analysis in a server)

3. Third embodiment (example of mounting the configuration on a cellularphone)<

1. First Embodiment

First, the configuration of a PND (Personal Navigation Device) which isan example of the position information providing device according to anembodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference toFIGS. 1 to 4. FIG. 1 is a view illustrating an example of the exteriorof the PND. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the functionalconfiguration of the PND according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is ablock diagram illustrating an example of the detailed configuration of aposition information obtaining portion of the PND. FIG. 4 is a viewillustrating a coordinate system around the PND.

[The Configuration of PND 10]

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of the exterior of a PND 10 which is anexample of the position information providing device according to anembodiment of the present disclosure. The PND 10 has a navigationfunction of giving directions to a destination and a function ofproviding various types of information associated with the positioninformation to a user. The PND 10 includes a display portion 12 at thefront surface thereof, which is a portion for displaying imagesincluding an information providing screen providing various types ofinformation. The case of the PND 10 is held by a cradle 14 which isprovided on a dashboard of a vehicle through a sucker 16. The PND 10 canbe easily attached to or detached from the cradle 14.

The PND 10 has a function of obtaining its own current positioninformation and stores map data. Consequently, the PND 10 cansuperimpose the current position information on a map and cause thedisplay portion 12 to display the position.

The functional configuration of the PND 10 will be described withreference to FIG. 2. The PND 10 mainly includes the display portion 12,a storage portion 102, an operation portion 104, a voice output portion106, a sound data obtaining portion 108, and a navigation function unit110.

The navigation function unit 110 mainly functions as a sound sourceseparation portion 120, a sound position determination portion 121, asound position information obtaining portion 123, a sound typedetermination portion 125, a sound type information obtaining portion127, a position information obtaining portion 130, and a navigationportion 150. The navigation portion 150 further includes functions of amap matching portion 151, a display control portion 153, and anoperation mode determination portion 155.

The display portion 12 is a display device outputting a screen where theinformation showing the current position has been superimposed on themap data. For example, the display portion 12 may be a display devicesuch as a LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), an organic EL(Elecroluminescence) display, or the like.

The storage portion 102 is a storage medium storing programs foroperating the PND 10, map data, and the like. For example, the storageportion 102 may be a storage medium such as a non-volatile memoryincluding a Flash ROM (or Flash Memory), EEPROM (Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory), EPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM), andthe like; a magnetic disk including a hard disk, a disk-shaped magneticdisk, and the like; an optical disc including a CD (Compact Disc), DVD-R(Digital Versatile Disc Recordable), a BD (Blu-Ray Disc (registeredtrade mark)), and the like; and an MO (Magneto Optical) disc.

In the present embodiment, the storage portion 102 has a function oftemporarily storing the position information and sound type informationof the sound data.

The operation portion 104 receives operation instructions given by theuser and outputs the contents of the operation to the navigationfunction unit 110. Examples of the operation instructions given by theuser include destination setting, magnification or reduction of a map,voice guidance setting, and screen display setting. The operationportion 104 may be a touch screen provided integrally with the displayportion 12. Alternatively, the operation portion 104 may be a physicalconfiguration such as a button, a switch, a lever, or the like which isprovided separately from the display portion 12. Furthermore, theoperation portion 104 may be a signal receiving portion detectingsignals showing operation signals transmitted from a remote controllerby the user.

The voice output portion 106 is an output device outputting voice dataand may be a speaker or the like, for example. The voice output portion106 outputs the voice guidance used for navigation, for example. Bylistening to the voice guidance, the user can know the direction to adestination even if not looking at the display portion 12.

The sound data obtaining portion 108 has a function of obtaining sounddata around the PND 10. For example, the sound data obtaining portion108 is typically a sound collecting device such as a so-calledmicrophone. The directivity of the sound collecting device may beswitched between the presence and absence of the directivity. The sounddata obtaining portion 108 inputs the obtained sound data to the soundsource separation portion 120. When a method of determining the soundposition implemented by the sound position determination portion 121 hasa function of determining the sound position based on the frequencymodulation caused by the Doppler effect, the sound data obtainingportion 108 may has a configuration for moving the sound collectingdevice closer to or away from a sound source so as to detect thefrequency modulation. Alternatively, the sound data obtaining portion108 may be able to obtain sound data from a plurality of soundcollecting devices. Moreover, the sound data obtaining portion 108 isnot limited only to the sound collecting device mounted on the body ofthe PND 10. The sound data obtaining portion 108 may be an interface forobtaining sound data from a separate sound collecting device.

The sound data obtaining portion 108 may change the sound data obtainingrange according to the operation mode provided from the operation modedetermination portion 155. For example, when the operation is performedin an on-board mode, since the PND 10 is considered to move faster thanwhen the operation is performed in a walk mode, the sound data obtainingrange may be set widely. When there is an immovable object generatingsound, for example, a railroad crossing or the like around the PND 10,the sound data obtaining portion 108 may obtain the sound data byorienting the directivity thereof to the direction of the immovableobject, based on the map data.

The sound source separation portion 120 has a function of executing asound source separation processing for extracting voice signalscorresponding to the respective sound sources from the sound data whichis obtained by the sound data obtaining portion 108 and includes soundsgenerated from a plurality of sound sources.

The sound position determination portion 121 has a function ofdetermining the sound data transmission position (that is, the soundsource position) corresponding to the respective sound source which isprovided from the sound source separation portion 120. An example of thesound position determining method of the sound position determinationportion 121 includes a method in which the sound transmission positionis determined based on the frequency modulation caused by the Dopplereffect of the signals obtained by moving the sound collecting devicecloser to or away from the sound source. The sound positiondetermination portion 121 can also generate relative positioninformation from the PND 10.

The sound position information obtaining portion 123 has a function ofobtaining the sound position information showing the sound datatransmission position from the sound position determination portion 121.The sound position information obtaining portion 123 inputs the obtainedsound position information to the map matching portion 151 of thenavigation portion 150.

The sound type determination portion 125 has a function of determiningthe type of the sound data corresponding to the respective sound sourcewhich is provided from the sound source separation portion 120. Thesound type determination portion 125 determines the sound type using,for example, sample data of sounds stored in advance in the storageportion 102. Examples of the sounds to be determined by the sound typedetermination portion 125 include sirens of emergency vehicles such asan ambulance, a patrol car, a fire truck, or the like; the sound of anelectric train passing by; children's cheers; chirruping of cicadas;alert sounds of a railroad crossing; and sounds from a pedestriantraffic signal equipped with an acoustic device, and the like.

The sound type information obtaining portion 127 has a function ofobtaining the sound type information showing the type of sound data fromthe sound type determination portion 125. The sound type informationobtaining portion 127 inputs the obtained sound type information to themap matching portion 151 and the display control portion 153.

The position information obtaining portion 130 has a function ofobtaining the position information showing the current position of thePND 10. The position information obtaining portion 130 has a function ofobtaining the position information based on at least any one ofpositioning signals from a positioning satellite including the GPS(Global Positioning System), data detected by various types of sensors,the reception intensity of WiFi radio waves received from a plurality ofbase stations, and the distance from the base station. Herein, aconfiguration of using the positioning signals from the GPS and thevalues detected by the various types of sensors will be described usingFIG. 3 for example. When the position information is obtained based onthe reception intensity of WiFi radio waves from a plurality of basestations and on the distance from the base station, the positioninformation obtaining portion 130 includes a receiver receiving the WiFiradio waves from the plurality of base stations and a current positioncalculation portion which determines the distance from the respectivebase stations from the reception intensity of the received WiFi radiowaves and calculates the current position based on the principle oftriangulation using the distance from the respective base stations andthe position of the respective base stations.

Herein, the detailed configuration of the position information obtainingportion 130 of the PND 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3and 4. The position information obtaining portion 130 mainly includes aGPS antenna 131, a GPS processing portion 132, a geomagnetic sensor 133,a 3-axis acceleration sensor 134, a Y-axis gyro sensor 135, a Z-axisgyro sensor 136, an atmospheric pressure sensor 137, a postural angledetection portion 138, an azimuth calculation portion 139, a velocitycalculation portion 140, an angle calculation portion 141, a positioncalculation portion 142, an altitude calculation portion 143, and aposition information generation portion 149.

The GPS antenna 131 can receive GPS signals from a plurality of GPSsatellites and inputs the received GPS signals to the GPS processingportion 132. The received GPS signals herein include information such asorbit data showing the orbit of the GPS satellite and a transmissiontime of the signals.

The GPS processing portion 132 calculates the position informationshowing the current position of the corresponding PND 10 based on aplurality of GPS signals input from the GPS antenna 131, and providesthe calculated position information to the position informationgeneration portion 149. Specifically, the GPS processing portion 132calculates the position of each GPS satellite from the orbit dataobtained by the demodulation of each of the plurality of GPS signals,and calculates the distance between each GPS satellite and thecorresponding PND 10 from the difference between the transmission timeand the reception time of the GPS signals. Thereafter, the GPSprocessing portion 132 calculates a 3 dimensional current position basedon the calculated position of each GPS satellite and the distancebetween each GPS satellite and the corresponding PND 10.

The geomagnetic sensor 133 has a function of detecting geomagnetismM_(x), M_(y), and M_(z) in each of an X-axis direction, a Y-axisdirection, and a Z-axis direction, as voltage values.

The 3-axis acceleration sensor 134 is a sensor having a function ofdetecting acceleration α_(x) along the X-axis, acceleration α_(y) alongthe Y-axis, and acceleration α_(z) along the Z-axis respectively asvoltage values. The 3-axis acceleration sensor 134 detects theaccelerations α_(x), α_(y), and α_(z), and inputs data showing thedetected acceleration to the postural angle detection portion 138 andthe velocity calculation portion 140.

As shown in FIG. 4, the Z-axis corresponds to a vertical direction, theX-axis corresponds to the movement direction of the PND 10, and theY-axis corresponds to a horizontal direction orthogonal to the X-axis.

The Y-axis gyro sensor 135 is a sensor having a function of detecting apitch rate ω_(y) which is an angular velocity on the Y-axis, as avoltage value. The Y-axis gyro sensor 135 detects the pitch rate andinputs data showing the detected pitch rate to the velocity calculationportion 140.

The Z-axis gyro sensor 136 is a sensor having a function of detecting ayaw rate was a voltage value which is a velocity (angular velocity) atwhich a rotation angle on the Z-axis changes while the PND 10 gyrates.The Z-axis gyro sensor 136 detects the yaw rate and inputs data showingthe detected yaw rate to the angle calculation portion 141.

The atmospheric pressure sensor 137 is a sensor having a function ofdetecting the surrounding atmospheric pressure as a voltage value. Theatmospheric pressure sensor 137 detects the atmospheric pressure andinputs data showing the detected atmospheric pressure to the altitudecalculation portion 143.

The postural angle detection portion 138 performs a predeterminedpostural angle detection processing based on the acceleration dataα_(x), α_(y), and α_(z) input from the 3-axis acceleration sensor 134 soas to generate postural angle data showing the postural angle of the PND10, and inputs the data to the azimuth calculation portion 139.

The azimuth calculation portion 139 performs a predetermined correctionprocessing on the geomagnetism data M_(x), M_(y), and M_(z) input fromthe geomagnetic sensor 133, and generates azimuth data showing theazimuth of the PND 10 based on the corrected geomagnetism data and thepostural angle data input from the postural angle detection portion 138.The azimuth calculation portion 139 provides the generated azimuth datato the position information generation portion 149.

That is, the geomagnetic sensor 133, the 3-axis acceleration sensor 134,the postural angle detection portion 138, and the azimuth calculationportion 139 function as a so-called electronic compass, and generateazimuth data. Mostly, when the PND 10 is detached from the cradle 14 foruse (for example, when the PND 10 is used during walking), thenavigation portion 150 can provide the map data displayed by beingoriented to the direction of the PND 10 to the user by using the azimuthdata. When used in a vehicle, the PND 10 can associate a road in the mapdata with the position of the vehicle from the route of the position ofthe vehicle, and can provide the map data oriented to the direction ofthe PND 10 based on the azimuth of the map, to the user. Alternatively,the PND 10 can also calculate the direction of the PND 10 from theobtained GPS azimuth, and provide the map data oriented to the directionto the user.

The velocity calculation portion 140 divides the acceleration α_(z)along the Z-axis input from the 3-axis acceleration sensor 134 by thepitch rate ω_(y) input from the Y-axis gyro sensor 135 so as tocalculate a velocity V with respect to the movement direction, andinputs the calculated velocity V to the position calculation portion142.

The angle calculation portion 141 adds a sampling cycle to the yaw rateω_(z) input from the Z-axis gyro sensor 136, whereby calculating anangle θ at the time when the PND 10 gyrates, and inputs the angle datashown by the angle θ to the position calculation portion 142.

The position calculation portion 142 has a function of calculating theposition information of the current position based on the velocity Vcalculated by the velocity calculation portion 140 and the angle θcalculated by the angle calculation portion 141. Specifically, theposition calculation portion 142 determines the amount of change fromthe position obtained by the previous calculation to the currentposition, based on the velocity V and the angle θ. Then, the positioncalculation portion 142 calculates the current position information fromthe amount of change and the position of the previous time.Subsequently, the position calculation portion 142 provides the positioninformation of the current position to the position informationgeneration portion 149.

Based on the atmospheric pressure data input from the atmosphericpressure sensor 137, the altitude calculation portion 143 calculates thealtitude of the PND 10, and provides the calculated altitude data to theposition information generation portion 149.

The position information generation portion 149 generates the positioninformation including necessary data among absolute position informationprovided from the GPS processing portion 132, the azimuth data of thePND 10 provided from the azimuth calculation portion 139, the positioninformation of the PND 10 which is based on a relative position and isprovided from the position calculation portion 142, and the altitudedata of the PND 10 provided from the altitude calculation portion 143,and provides the generated data to the navigation portion 150.

So far, the detailed configuration of the position information obtainingportion 130 has been described using FIGS. 3 and 4. Next, thedescription will be continued with reference to FIG. 2.

The navigation portion 150 provides the current position information ofthe PND 10 by superimposing the information on the map display screendisplayed on the display screen of the display portion 12. Thenavigation portion 150 also has a function of guiding the user when theuser has set a destination, using the display screen of the displayportion 12 and voice sound output from the voice output portion 106. Inthe present embodiment, the PND 10 provides not only the currentposition of the PND 10 but the information of the sound datatransmission position obtained around the PND 10, on the map displayscreen. The detailed configuration of the navigation portion 150 forrealizing the function will be described as follows. Herein, in order todescribe the provision of sound data transmission position in the main,the detailed description of the navigation function will be omitted.

The map matching portion 151 has a function of correcting the positioninformation (that is, specifying the sound data transmission position onthe map) by using the map data. In general, the map matching portion 151performs correction so that the current position of the PND 10 operatingin the vehicle becomes the position on the road, using information on aroad network among the map data. That is, the map matching portion 151corrects the position by matching the current position of the PND 10with the road. In addition to the correction function, the map matchingportion 151 also has a function of correcting the sound positioninformation provided from the sound position information obtainingportion 123.

Regarding the position information of the PND 10 itself, as long as thePND 10 is used in the vehicle, the map matching portion 151 corrects theposition information by using the information on the road network, basedon a premise that the PND 10 is highly likely at a place where vehiclepass, that is, on the road mainly. However, in a case of the positioninformation of sounds, the position is not necessarily on the road. Theobject supposed to be a target of matching varies depending on the typeof the sound. Accordingly, when correcting the sound positioninformation, the map matching portion 151 may specify the position ofthe sound data by matching the position with the object selected basedon the sound type information obtained by the sound type informationobtaining portion 127. For example, when determining that the soundsource is a vehicle such as an ambulance, a patrol car, and a fire truckbased on the sound type information, the map matching portion 151 mayspecify the position of the sound data on the map by matching theposition with the road. This matching is performed based on a premisethat the vehicle is supposed to run on the road. However, for example,in a hospital, a fire station, a police station or the like, the vehicleis highly likely to be not only on the road but in the ground of thehospital, fire station, or police station. Consequently, the mapmatching portion 151 can omit the sound data matching processing aroundthe predetermined facilities.

When determining that the sound source is an electric train based on thesound type information, the map matching portion 151 may specify theposition of the sound data on the map by matching the position with therailway. Moreover, when the sound data is children's cheers, the mapmatching portion 151 may specify the position of the sound data on themap by matching the position with a park or a pedestrian traffic signal.

When the sound source is an immovable object having a fixed position,matching can be performed using the position information of the sametype of immovable object on the map. For example, when the sound data isthe sound of a railroad crossing, the map matching portion 151 mayspecify the position of the railroad crossing on the map by matching theposition with the position of the railroad crossing on the map data. Thesame method is applied to a case of the pedestrian traffic signalequipped with an acoustic device.

There are several types of sounds of the pedestrian traffic signalequipped with an acoustic device. For example, when there is apedestrian traffic signal equipped with an acoustic device of differentdirections at a single intersection, two types of sounds are generated.By determining the type of the sounds, it is possible to determine thecurrent state of the signals from the sound data. Accordingly, in thepresent embodiment, the map data stored in the storage portion 102 isassociated with the respective sound types of the pedestrian trafficsignal equipped with an acoustic device in advance. By matching theposition with the pedestrian traffic signal equipped with an acousticdevice according to the sound type, the map matching portion 151 canspecify the position of the sound data on the map, and can provide theinformation showing the state of the signal in the movement direction ofthe PND 10 to the display control portion 153, from the current positionand the movement direction of the PND 10 (for example, based on thehistory of the current position).

The map matching portion 151 may change the obtainment range of thesound data subjected to the map matching, according to the operationmode of the PND 10 provided from the operation mode determinationportion 155.

The display control portion 153 has a function of controlling thedisplay of the screen displayed in the display portion 12. The displaycontrol portion 153 controls, for example, the map data stored in thestorage portion 102 to be displayed mainly on the map display screen,based on the position information of the PND 10 and the sound dataprovided from the map matching portion 151, the information of theoperation mode determined by the operation mode determination portion155, and the operation information of the user provided from theoperation portion 104.

Using the position information of the PND 10 and the sound data providedfrom the map matching portion 151, the display control portion 153displays the map display screen in which icons showing the currentposition of the PND 10 and the position of the sound data have beensuperimposed on the map data. At this time, the display control portion153 displays the icons of types (shape or pattern) according to thesound type information of the sound data on the map display screen. Whenthe sound data transmission position is in a position within the rangedisplayed in the map display screen, the display control portion 153displays a screen in which the above icons have been superimposed onsites corresponding to the sound data transmission position on the map.

Based on the history of the sound data transmission position, thedisplay control portion 153 may display an arrow showing the movementdirection of the transmission position of the sound data transmittedfrom a moving object, near the icons associated with the target sounddata. In the position information providing device providing its owncurrent position, the display screen is not changed unless the deviceitself moves. Contrary to this, since the PND 10 according to thepresent embodiment shows the position of the sounds transmitted from thesurrounding sound source, the PND 10 can provide the new pleasure thatthe display screen changes continuously if the position information ofthe sounds transmitted from a moving object is provided, even if theposition of the PND 10 itself is not moved. For example, when theposition of the sound data transmitted from an immovable object isprovided, the display control portion 153 can provide an ever-changingscreen by using animated icons.

When there are sound data transmitted from a plurality of sound sources,the display control portion 153 may determine the priority of the sounddata for displaying the position on the map display screen, among theplurality of sound data items. For example, since the position of theimmovable object can be found from the map data in some cases, the sounddata thereof may be determined to have lower priority compared to thesound data transmitted from a moving object. Moreover, the shorter thedistance between the current position of the PND 10 and the sound datatransmission position, the higher the priority may be given to the dataso that the data is displayed on the map display screen.

The display control portion 153 may determine whether the soundtransmission position will be displayed, based on the sound type, thepositional relationship between the current position of the PND 10 andthe sound transmission position, and the movement direction of the PND10. For example, when the sound type is sound of a railroad crossing, ifthe railroad crossing is in the direction opposite to the movementdirection of the PND 10, the importance of the sound of the railroadcrossing is low to the user. Therefore, the display control portion 153may determine that the information of the sound transmission position ofthe railroad crossing will not be displayed. Alternatively, when thesound type is an ambulance, if the sound position of the ambulance isgetting far away from the position of the PND 10, the display controlportion 153 may determine that the information of the correspondingsound transmission position will not be displayed.

The operation mode determination portion 155 has a function ofdetermining operation modes of the PND 10. For example, the operationmode determination portion 155 may determine the operation modes basedon operation information that the user inputs in an operation modeswitching screen by using the operation portion 104. The operation modesreferred to herein may be operation modes according to the way oftransportation of the user, such as an on-board mode, a walk mode, abicycle mode, and the like. Alternatively, when a configuration is usedin which the operation mode is automatically switched to the walk modeif the detachment of the PND 10 from the cradle 14 is detected, theoperation mode determination portion 155 may determine the operationmode according to the information obtained by detecting the detachment.

So far, an example of the function of the PND 10 according to anembodiment of the present disclosure has been described. Each of theconstituents described above may be configured using general-purposemembers or circuits or may be configured by hardware specialized for thefunctions of each constituent. In order to perform the functions of eachof the constituents, an arithmetic device such as a CPU (CentralProcessing Unit) may read a control program from a storage medium suchas a ROM (Read Only Memory) or RAM (Random Access Memory) which storesthe control program disclosing a process sequence of realizing thefunctions, and analyze and execute the program. Accordingly, theconfiguration to be used can be appropriately changed according to thetechnological level in each case of embodying the present embodiment.

It is possible to create a computer program for realizing each functionof the PND 10 according to the present disclosure described above, andto install the program in a personal computer or the like. It is alsopossible to provide a recording medium which stores the computer programand can be read by a computer. The recording medium is, for example, amagnetic disk, an optical disc, a magneto optical disc, a flash memory,and the like. In addition, the computer program may be deliveredthrough, for example, a network, without using the recording medium.

[Sound Position Information Providing Operation]

Next, the operation of the PND 10 will be described with reference toFIG. 5. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the operationrelating to the sound position provision of the PND according to thepresent disclosure.

The sound data obtaining portion 108 obtains sound data (S101). Thesound data obtaining portion 108 provides the obtained sound data to thesound source separation portion 120. Herein, the provided sound datanormally includes sounds from a plurality of sound sources.Consequently, the sound source separation portion 120 executes soundsource separation processing in which the sound data corresponding toeach sound source is extracted from the sound data. Thereafter, thesound type determination portion 125 determines the sound type of eachsound data having undergone the sound source separation (S103). Herein,the sound type determination portion 125 determines whether or not thesound data which is the sound type as a display target has been obtained(S105). When the sound data which is the sound type as the displaytarget has not been obtained, the corresponding operation ends.

When it is determined that the sound data as the display target isobtained in step S105, the sound type determination portion 125 providesthe sound type information to the sound type information obtainingportion 127, and the sound type information obtaining portion 127provides the sound type information to the map matching portion 151 andthe display control portion 153. At this time, the sound positiondetermination portion 121 determines the sound position of the sounddata as the display target (S107). Then, the sound positiondetermination portion 121 provides the determined sound positioninformation to the sound position information obtaining portion 123, andthe sound position information obtaining portion 123 provides the soundposition information to the map matching portion 151.

Based on the sound position information provided from the sound positioninformation obtaining portion 123 and the sound type informationprovided from the sound type information obtaining portion 127, the mapmatching portion 151 corrects the sound position information by matchingthe sound position information with an object on the map data (S109).The detail of the map matching processing executed herein will bedescribed later with reference to FIG. 6.

As a result of determining whether or not the same type of sound datahas been continuously obtained (S111), when it is determined that thesame type of sound data had been obtained again at the previous time,the display control portion 153 determines the movement direction of thesound transmission position based on the history of the sound positioninformation (S113).

Thereafter, the display control portion 153 reads display data (S115).Herein, the data to be displayed is mainly the map data, the currentposition information of the PND 10, the icons showing the soundtransmission position, and the like. At this step, the display controlportion 153 performs a process of selecting the type of the iconaccording to the sound type.

The display control portion 153 displays the sound position on the map(S117) and attracts attention by means of voice guidance as necessary(S119). At this time, the display control portion 153 may display anarrow showing the movement direction determined in step S113 as well asthe sound transmission position. Subsequently, the displayed soundposition and the sound type are stored in, for example, the storageportion 102 (S121). It is preferable that the respective steps describedherein be repeated while the function of displaying the soundtransmission position is performed.

So far, the operations relating to the sound transmission positionprovision of the PND 10 have been described. Now, the detail of mapmatching processing in step S109 will be described with reference toFIG. 6.

[Map Matching Processing]

First, the map matching portion 151 calculates the latitude andlongitude of the sound position from the sound position informationobtained by the distance and angle from an observation site, that is,the PND 10 (step S151). Thereafter, the map matching portion 151 obtainsthe attribute of the latitude and longitude calculated in step S151 fromthe map data (S153).

Subsequently, the map matching portion 151 determines whether or not thesound type is a moving object such as a vehicle or an electric train(S155). Herein, when the sound type is a moving object such as a vehicleor an electric train, the map matching portion 151 corrects the soundposition information by matching the sound position information with theposition of the nearest road or railroad (S157).

On the other hand, when it is determined that the sound type is not amoving object such as a vehicle or an electric train in step S155, themap matching portion 151 determines whether or not the sound type is astationary object (which is also referred to as a immovable object) suchas a railroad crossing or a traffic signal equipped with an acousticdevice (S159). Herein, when it is determined that the sound type is astationary object such as a railroad crossing or a traffic signalequipped with an acoustic device, the map matching portion 151 correctsthe sound position information by matching the sound positioninformation with the position of the nearest railroad crossing ortraffic signal (S161). On the other hand, when the sound type is not anyone of the objects, the sound position information not being correctedis output as a result of matching (S163).

Now, the map display screen of the PND 10 will be described withreference to FIGS. 7 and 8. FIG. 7 is a view illustrating an example ofa map display screen in a case where the sound type is a siren of anambulance. FIG. 8 is a view illustrating another example of the mapdisplay screen in a case where the sound type is a sound of railroadcrossing.

For example, when the sound type is the siren of an ambulance, an icon51 showing the ambulance and an icon M showing the current position ofthe PND 10 are displayed. In addition, if the sound position informationof the ambulance is continuously obtained, the movement direction of theambulance as a sound source may be determined from the history of thesound position information, and the direction may be shown by an arrow53. Furthermore, it is preferable to display an icon showing anambulance 51 after the direction of the icon is matched with themovement direction.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of the map display screen in a case ofshowing the sound position of a railroad crossing as an immovableobject. When it is shown that the sound type is the sound from theimmovable object, it is preferable to provide the sound transmissionposition by animation. For example, by alternatively displaying an icon52 a and an icon 52 b, an icon 52 in a display screen 520 looks as ifthe icon is moving.

2. Second Embodiment

Next, the position information providing system according to the secondembodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference toFIGS. 9 to 12. In the first embodiment, the process of determining thesound type and the sound position is performed in the PND 10. However, aPND 20 according to the second embodiment obtains sound type informationand sound position information by using the function of an analysisserver 60. FIG. 9 is a configuration view of the position informationproviding system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 10 is a blockdiagram illustrating the functional configuration of the PND accordingto the embodiment. FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating thefunctional configuration of the analysis server according to theembodiment. FIG. 12 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of theoperation relating to sound position provision of the positioninformation providing system according to the embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 9, the position information providing system accordingto the present embodiment includes the PND 20, and the analysis server60 connected through a network 50.

[Configuration of PND 20]

The functional configuration of the PND 20 is shown in FIG. 10. Amongthe respective constituents of the PND 20, the ones having the samefunction as the PND 10 according to the first embodiment are marked withthe same reference numerals, whereby the detailed description thereofwill be omitted. Hereinafter, differences of the PND 20 with respect tothe PND 10 will in the main be described.

The PND 20 mainly includes the storage portion 102, the display portion12, the operation portion 104, the voice output portion 106, the sounddata obtaining portion 108, a communication portion 201, a sound typeinformation obtaining portion 227, a sound position informationobtaining portion 223, the navigation portion 150, and the positioninformation obtaining portion 130.

For example, the communication portion 201 is a communication interfaceconfigured with a communication device for being connected to thenetwork 50 such as the internet. For example, when the communicationportion 201 performs wireless communication, the communication portion201 may include a communication antenna for transceiving signals for thecommunication, a processing circuit processing various types of signalsfor the communication, and the like. Moreover, the communication portion201 may be a communication interface performing wired communication. Thecommunication portion 201 transceives various data such as sound data,position information, sound position information, and sound typeinformation with the analysis server 60, through the network 50.

The communication portion 201 functions as a transmission portiontransmitting the sound data obtained by the sound data obtaining portion108 to the analysis server 60, and functions as a reception portionreceiving sound position information and sound type information obtainedfrom the analysis server 60. The communication portion 201 provides thereceived sound position information to the sound position informationobtaining portion 223, and provides the obtained sound type informationto the sound type information obtaining portion 227.

The sound position information obtaining portion 223 has a function ofobtaining the sound position information on the sound data from acertain sound source which is included in the sound data that the sounddata obtaining portion 108 obtains from the analysis server 60 throughthe communication portion 201. When the sound type information obtainingportion 227, which will be described next, determines that the targetsound data is the sound of display target which shows the sound positioninformation, the sound position information obtaining portion 223provides the obtained sound position information to the map matchingportion 151.

The sound type information obtaining portion 227 has a function ofobtaining sound type information from the analysis server 60 through thecommunication portion 201. Based on the obtained sound type information,the sound type information obtaining portion 227 determines whether ornot the corresponding sound data is a display target. For example, byreferring to a list of sound type as the display target which is storedin advance in the storage portion 102, the sound type informationobtaining portion 227 may determine whether or not the sound data is adisplay target based on whether or not the sound data is included in thelist. When the corresponding sound data is a display target, the soundtype information obtaining portion 227 provides the obtained sound typeinformation to the map matching portion 151 and the display controlportion 153.

When all of the sound data having been specified according to the soundtype by the analysis server 60 are taken as the display target, thesound type information obtaining portion 227 and the sound positioninformation obtaining portion 223 may provide all of the obtained soundtype information or the sound position information to the map matchingportion 151 or the display control portion 153.

[Configuration of Analysis Server 60]

Next, the functional configuration of the analysis server 60 will bedescribed with reference to the FIG. 11. The analysis server 60 mainlyincludes a communication portion 601, a storage portion 602, a soundsource separation portion 620, a sound type determination portion 625,and a sound position determination portion 621.

For example, the communication portion 601 is a communication interfaceconfigured with a communication device for being connected to thenetwork 50 such as the internet. For example, when the communicationportion 601 performs wireless communication, the communication portion601 may include a communication antenna for transceiving signals for thecommunication, a processing circuit processing various types of signalsfor the communication, and the like. Moreover, the communication portion601 may be a communication interface performing wired communication. Thecommunication portion 601 transceives various data such as sound data,position information, sound position information, and sound typeinformation with the PND 20, through the network 50.

The communication portion 601 functions as a reception portion receivingthe sound data transmitted from the PND 20, and provides the receivedsound data to the sound source separation portion 620. The communicationportion 601 functions as a transmission portion transmitting the soundtype information provided from the sound type determination portion 625and the sound position information provided from the sound positiondetermination portion 621 to the PND 20.

The storage portion 602 is a storage medium storing programs foroperating the analysis server 60, sample data for determining the soundtype, and the like. For example, the storage portion 602 may be astorage medium such as a non-volatile memory including a Flash ROM (orFlash Memory), EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-OnlyMemory), EPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM), and the like; a magneticdisk including a hard disk, a disk-shaped magnetic disk, and the like;an optical disc including a CD (Compact Disc), DVD-R (Digital VersatileDisc Recordable), a BD (Blu-Ray Disc (registered trade mark)), and thelike; and an MO (Magneto Optical) disc.

The sound source separation portion 620 has a function of executing asound source separation processing for extracting voice signalscorresponding to the respective sound sources from the sound data whichis obtained from the PND 20 through the communication portion 601 andincludes sounds transmitted from a plurality of sound sources.

The sound type determination portion 625 has a function of determiningthe type of the sound data corresponding to the respective sound sourcewhich is provided from the sound source separation portion 620. Thesound type determination portion 625 determines the sound type using,for example, sample data of sounds stored in advance in the storageportion 602. Herein, examples of the sounds to be determined by thesound type determination portion 625 include sirens of emergencyvehicles such as an ambulance, a patrol car, a fire truck, or the like;the sound of an electric train passing by; children's cheers; chirrupingof cicadas; alert sounds of a railroad crossing; and sounds from apedestrian traffic signal equipped with an acoustic device, and thelike. The sound type determination portion 625 transmits the sound typeinformation obtained by the determination to the PND 20 through thecommunication portion 601.

The sound position determination portion 621 has a function ofdetermining the sound data transmission position (that is, the soundsource position) corresponding to the respective sound source which isprovided from the sound source separation portion 620. An example of thesound position determining method of the sound position determinationportion 621 includes a method in which the sound transmission positionis determined based on the frequency modulation caused by the Dopplereffect of the signals obtained by moving a sound collecting devicecloser to or away from the sound source. The sound positiondetermination portion 621 can also generate relative positioninformation from the PND 20. The sound position determination portion621 transmits the sound position information obtained by thedetermination to the PND 20 through the communication portion 601.

So far, an example of the functions of the PND 20 and the analysisserver 60 according to the present embodiment has been described. Eachof the constituents described above may be configured usinggeneral-purpose members or circuits or may be configured with a hardwarespecialized for the functions of each constituent. In order to performthe functions of each of the constituents, an arithmetic device such asa CPU (Central Processing Unit) may read a control program from astorage medium such as a ROM (Read Only Memory) or RAM (Random AccessMemory) which stores the control program disclosing a process sequenceof realizing the functions, and analyze and execute the program.Accordingly, the configuration to be used can be appropriately changedaccording to the technological level in each case of embodying thepresent embodiment.

It is possible to create a computer program for realizing each functionof the PND 20 and the analysis server 60 according to the presentembodiment described above, and to install the program in a personalcomputer or the like. It is also possible to provide a recording mediumwhich stores the computer program and can be read by a computer. Therecording medium is, for example, a magnetic disk, an optical disc, amagneto optical disc, a flash memory, and the like. In addition, thecomputer program may be delivered through, for example, a network,without using the recording medium.

[Sound Position Information Providing Operation]

Next, an example of operation regarding the sound position informationprovision of the position information providing system, which isrealized by the PND 20 and the analysis server 60, will be describedwith reference to FIG. 12.

First, the PND 20 obtains the sound data by the sound data obtainingportion 108 (S201). The sound data obtaining portion 108 transmits theobtained sound data to the analysis server 60 through the communicationportion 201 (S203). Then, the communication portion 601 of the analysisserver 60 having received the sound data provides the received sounddata to the sound source separation portion 620. The sound sourceseparation portion 620 executes sound source separation processing inwhich the sound data corresponding to each sound source is extractedfrom the received sound data, and the sound type determination portion625 determines the sound type of each sound data obtained by theseparation (S207). Thereafter, the sound position determination portion621 determines the sound position of the sound data for which the soundtype has been determined (S207). The communication portion 601 transmitsthe sound type information and the sound position information obtainedby the determination to the PND 20 (S209).

When the communication portion 201 of the PND 20 receives the soundposition information and the sound type information from the analysisserver 60, the sound type information obtaining portion 227 determineswhether or not the corresponding sound data is the sound of a displaytarget, based on the received sound type information (S211). Herein, byreferring to a display target sound list which is a list stored inadvance in the storage portion 102 and including the sound types ofdisplay targets, the sound type information obtaining portion 227 maydetermine whether or not the sound data is the sound of a displaytarget.

When it is determined that the sound data is the sound of a displaytarget in step S211, the map matching portion 151 executes map matchingprocessing in which the sound position information is corrected by beingmatched with a comparative object in the map data, based on the soundposition information and the sound type information (S213). The mapmatching processing in step S213 is the same as that in the firstembodiment, and the details thereof are shown in FIG. 6. Herein, thedetailed description thereof will be omitted.

Next, the display control portion 153 determines whether or not the sametype of sound data has been continuously obtained (S215). When the sametype of sound data had been obtained again at the previous time, themovement direction of the sound transmission position is determinedbased on the history of the sound position information (S217).

Subsequently, the display control portion 153 reads the display data(S219). The data displayed herein is mainly the map data, the currentposition information of the PND 20, the icons showing the soundtransmission position, or the like. The display control portion 153performs a process of selecting the type of the icon according to thesound type in this step.

The display control portion 153 displays the sound position on the map(S221) and attracts attention by means of voice guidance as necessary(S223). At this time, the display control portion 153 may display anarrow showing the movement direction determined in step S113 as well asthe sound transmission position. Subsequently, the displayed soundposition and the sound type are stored in, for example, the storageportion 102 (S225). It is preferable that the respective steps describedherein be repeated while the function of displaying the soundtransmission position is performed.

So far, the position information providing system according to thesecond embodiment of the present disclosure has been described. In thepresent embodiment, the analysis server 60 performing the sound sourceseparation processing, the sound type determination processing, and thesound position determination processing is used. However, the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto. For example, the sound sourceseparation processing, the sound type determination processing, and thesound position determination processing may be performed by separatedevices.

3. Third Embodiment

Next, a cellular phone 30 will be described which is the positioninformation providing device according to the third embodiment of thepresent disclosure. In the above description, the position informationproviding device was described using the PND. However, the function ofthe device may be realized by a cellular phone. FIG. 13 illustrates anexterior in a case where the position information providing device isthe cellular phone, and FIG. 14 illustrates the functional configurationthereof. FIG. 13 is a view illustrating an example of the exterior of acellular phone according to the third embodiment of the presentdisclosure. FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating an example of thefunctional configuration of the cellular phone according to theembodiment.

As shown in FIG. 13, the cellular phone 30 according to the thirdembodiment includes a display portion 302, an operation portion 304, anda speaker 324. The cellular phone 30 may be installed in a vehicle by asucker 306 through a cradle 303, just like the PND 10 according to thefirst embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating the functional configuration ofthe cellular phone 30 according to the third embodiment. As shown inFIG. 14, the cellular phone 30 according to the third embodimentincludes a navigation function unit 110 or 210, the display portion 302,the operation portion 304, a storage portion 308, a cellular phonefunction unit 310, and a general control portion 334.

The cellular phone function unit 310 is connected to the display portion302, the operation portion 304, and the storage portion 308. Inaddition, the display portion 302, the operation portion 304, and thestorage portion 308 are connected respectively to the navigationfunction unit 110 or 210, even though the connection is briefly shown inFIG. 10. The detailed configuration of the navigation function unit 110was described in the first embodiment by using FIG. 2, and the detailedconfiguration of the navigation function unit 210 was described in thesecond embodiment by using FIG. 10. Therefore, the description thereofis omitted herein.

The cellular phone function unit 310 is a configuration for realizing acommunication function, an e-mailing function, and the like, andincludes a communication antenna 312, a microphone 314, an encoder 316,a transceiving portion 320, the speaker 324, a decoder 326, and acellular phone control portion 330.

The microphone 314 collects voice sound and outputs the voice sound asvoice signals. Under the control of the cellular phone control portion330, the encoder 316 performs digital conversion or encoding of thevoice signals input from the microphone 314, and outputs voice data tothe transceiving portion 320.

The transceiving portion 320 modulates the voice data input from theencoder 316 according to a predetermined method, and wirelesslytransmits the modulated data to the base station of the cellular phone30 from the communication antenna 312. In addition, the transceivingportion 320 obtains the voice data from the communication antenna 312 bydemodulating wireless signals, and outputs the data to the decoder 326.

Under the control of the cellular phone control portion 330, the decoder326 performs decoding and analogue conversion of the voice data inputfrom the transceiving portion 320, and outputs the voice signals to thespeaker 324. The speaker 324 outputs voice sound based on the voicesignals provided from the decoder 326.

When an e-mail is received, the cellular phone control portion 330provides the received data to the decoder 326 from the transceivingportion 320, and controls the decoder 326 to decode the received data.Thereafter, the cellular phone control portion 330 outputs the e-maildata obtained by decoding to the display portion 302, controls thedisplay portion 302 to display the data, and records the e-mail data inthe storage portion 308.

When an e-mail is transmitted, the cellular phone control portion 330controls the encoder 316 to encode the e-mail data input through theoperation portion 304, and wirelessly transmits the data through thetransceiving portion 320 and the communication antenna 312.

The general control portion 334 controls the above-described cellularphone function unit 310 and the navigation function unit 110 or 210. Forexample, when there is an incoming call while the navigation function isexecuted by the navigation function unit 110 or 210, the general controlportion 334 may temporarily switch the navigation function to thecommunication function of the cellular phone function unit 310. Afterthe telephone communication ends, the general control portion 334 maycontrol the navigation function of the navigation function unit 110 or210 to resume navigation function.

The operation relating to the position information provision of thecellular phone 30 is the same as the first and second embodiments.Therefore, the description thereof is omitted herein.

4. Summary

So far, as preferable embodiments of the position information providingdevice providing information of the sound transmission position, the PND10, the PND 20, and the cellular phone 30 have been described. In any onthe embodiments, the position information providing device extractssound data transmitted from a certain sound source from sound dataobtained around the device, and provides the sound type information andthe sound position information obtained by determining the type andposition of the extracted sound data, by displaying the sound typeinformation and the sound position information on the map.

Examples of the extracted sounds herein include sounds relating totraffic such as sirens of emergency vehicles including an ambulance, apatrol car, a fire truck, or the like, the sound of an electric trainpassing by, an alert sound of a railroad crossing, a sound of apedestrian traffic signal equipped with an acoustic device, as well aschildren's cheers, chirruping of cicadas, the roar of a bear, and thelike.

For example, by providing the information on the position and type ofthe sounds relating to traffic, it is possible to show an approachingemergency vehicle. If a user refers to this, the user can be ready forcrossing the road. At this time, when the user makes a determinationbased on the information of sound detected by the ears, to determinewhether the sound is getting closer or getting far away is the user'sjob. Moreover, a hearing-challenged user will have failed to obtain theinformation of sounds by now. However, according to the presentdisclosure, the information of sounds can be obtained by sight insteadof hearing.

Moreover, in the past, since a device providing position informationmainly provided information on the current position of the deviceitself, the display screen thereof was not changed unless the deviceitself moved. However, by providing position information and typeinformation of sounds based on surrounding sounds which are transmittedregardless of the position information providing device itself or theuser themselves, it is possible to provide a changing map displayscreen, and the user can enjoy visual pleasure. At this time, forexample, if the position information and type information of thechirruping of cicadas are provided, the user can find where the cicadasare chirruping. When the user relied only on hearing, the user was notable to find where the cicadas were chirruping in many cases, even if heor she heard the chirruping. However, the user can search for thecicadas by referring to the position information of the sound.Alternatively, in a case of mountain roads, the position and type of theroar of a bear may be displayed. Moreover, the information on theposition and type of sounds relating to weather, such as rumbling ofthunder, may be provided.

When the position information of sound is displayed on the map, the mapmatching processing of correcting the position information using the mapdata is performed. However, at this time, it is possible to match thesound position not only with the road network but with the objectaccording to the sound type. For example, if the sound of the electrictrain is matched with the railroad, the accuracy of the positioninformation is highly likely to be heightened. Furthermore, if the soundis from a railroad crossing, it is preferable to match the sound withthe railroad crossing. Alternatively, if the sound is from thepedestrian traffic signal equipped with an acoustic device, the soundcan be matched with the traffic signal in the map data. At this time,for example, if the pedestrian traffic signal equipped with an acousticdevice is at an intersection where crosswalks of two directionsintersect, different sounds are set with respect to the respectivedirections for the signal in general. By detecting the difference of thesounds, the position information providing device can ascertain thestate of the signal at the target intersection. For example, when thestate of the signal in the movement direction is detected, a message forattracting attention can be provided by display or voice input.

As described above, providing the position information of soundsrelating to traffic makes it possible to provide information helpful tothe user in driving. Moreover, correcting the sound position by usingthe map data makes it possible to heighten the accuracy of the positioninformation. In addition, since it is possible to provide the mapdisplay screen in which the display is changed even though the user doesnot move, the user can enjoy visual pleasure.

So far, though the preferable embodiments of the present disclosure havebeen described in detail with reference to the attached drawings, thepresent disclosure is not limited thereto. It is obvious that thoseskilled in the art included in the present disclosure can conceivevarious modifications and alterations within a technological scopedisclosed in the appended claims, which is needless to say within thetechnological scope of the present disclosure.

For example, in the above embodiments, the first and second embodimentsdescribed a case where the position information providing device was aPND, and the third embodiment described a case where the positioninformation providing device was a cellular phone. However, the presentdisclosure is not limited thereto. For example, the position informationproviding device may be a navigation device fixed in a vehicle and canalso be applied to various devices having a function of obtaining theposition information. In addition, in the above embodiments, a case wasdescribed where the position information providing device had anavigation function; however, the position information providing devicedoes not necessarily have the navigation function. For example, theposition information providing device may have a function of providinginformation based on the position information and map information.

In the above embodiments, as a configuration for obtaining the positioninformation, a configuration having a positioning function based on thesignals received from a GPS and a differential positioning functionusing various sensors was described; however, the present disclosure isnot limited thereto. The position information obtaining portion may havea configuration including a receiver receiving WiFi radio waves from aplurality of base stations, and a current position calculation portionwhich determines the distance from the respective base stations from thereception intensity of the received WiFi radio waves and calculates thecurrent position based on principle of triangulation using the distancefrom the respective base stations and the position of the respectivebase stations. Alternatively, a configuration may also be used whichobtains positioning information using various sensors that are notshown. Moreover, as an example of a positioning satellite, a GPS wasexemplified, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. As thepositioning satellite, various satellites such as Galileo, GLONASS,COMPASS, QZSS, and the like can be used. At this time, as thepositioning satellite, one type of satellite may be used, or positioningsignals from a plurality of types of satellites can be used incombination. According to the technological level in each case ofembodying the present disclosure, the configuration used for obtainingthe position information can be appropriately changed.

In the second embodiment, the analysis server 60 calculated theinformation on relative position of sounds, but the present disclosureis not limited thereto. It is possible that the PND 20 transmits theinformation of the current position of the PND 20 to the analysis server60 together with the sound data, whereby the analysis server 60 can evenperform a process of converting the information of the relative positionto the information of the latitude and the longitude.

In the present specification, the steps described in the flowcharts andthe sequence diagrams naturally include the processes performed in atime series manner in the described order. In addition, the steps do notnecessarily include the processes performed in the time series manner,and also include processes executed paratactically or separately.Needless to say, it is possible to appropriately change the order of thesteps according to circumstances even if the steps are processed in thetime series manner.

The present disclosure contains subject matter related to that disclosedin Japanese Priority Patent Application JP 2010-217526 filed in theJapan Patent Office on Sep. 28, 2010, the entire contents of which arehereby incorporated by reference.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that variousmodifications, combinations, sub-combinations and alterations may occurdepending on design requirements and other factors insofar as they arewithin the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

1. A position information providing device comprising: a display controlportion which controls, based on sound position information showingsound data transmission positions, the display of a map display screenwhere icons showing the sound data transmission positions aresuperimposed on a map.
 2. The device according to claim 1 furthercomprising: a map matching portion which specifies the sound datatransmission position on the map based on the sound positioninformation, wherein the display control portion displays the icons inthe positions specified by the map matching portion.
 3. The deviceaccording to claim 2 further comprising: an individual sound typeinformation obtaining unit obtaining individual sound type informationshowing the type of the sound data, wherein the display control portiondisplays the icon corresponding to the individual sound type informationon the map display screen.
 4. The device according to claim 3, whereinthe map matching portion specifies the position of the sound data bymatching the position with a target object on the map selected based onthe type of the sound data.
 5. The device according to claim 4, whereinthe map matching portion matches the position of sound data taking avehicle as a sound source with a road on the map, and omits the matchingprocessing of the sound data taking a vehicle as a sound source around apredetermined facility.
 6. The device according to claim 3, wherein thedisplay control portion displays an arrow showing the movement directionof the sound data transmission position on the map display screen, basedon the history of the sound data transmission position.
 7. The deviceaccording to claim 3, wherein the display control portion displays theposition of an immovable object for which the sound data transmissionposition does not move on the map display screen, using animated icons.8. The device according to claim 1, wherein when there is a plurality ofthe sound data items, the display control portion displays sound datatransmitted from a moving object and sound data transmitted from aposition close to the device on the map display screen by priority. 9.The device according to claim 1 further comprising: an operation modedetermination portion determining an operation mode according to a wayof transportation of the user of the corresponding position informationproviding device; and a sound data obtaining portion obtaining sounddata within an obtainment range according to the operation mode.
 10. Thedevice according to claim 1, wherein when there is an immovable objectgenerating sound around the position information providing device, thesound data obtaining portion obtains the sound data by orienting thedirectivity thereof to the direction of the immovable object.
 11. Aposition information providing method comprising: obtaining soundposition information showing a sound data transmission position; anddisplaying a map display screen where icons showing the sound datatransmission positions are superimposed on a map.
 12. A program causinga computer to function as a position information providing deviceincluding a display control portion which controls, based on soundposition information showing sound data transmission positions, thedisplay of a map display screen where icons showing the sound datatransmission positions are superimposed on a map.
 13. A positioninformation providing system comprising: an analysis server including asound position determination portion determining a sound datatransmission position and a communication portion transmitting soundposition information showing the transmission position; and a positioninformation providing device including a sound position informationobtaining portion obtaining the sound position information and a displaycontrol portion controlling the display of a map display screen in whichicons showing the sound data transmission positions are superimposed ona map.